Opening Space for the Radical Imagination conference

by instituteforanarchiststudies on March 28, 2018

April 6 – 8, 2018

Oregon State University

Corvallis, Oregon

The Opening Space for the Radical Imagination conference, co-sponsored by the Institute for Anarchist Studies, will explore formats to address, fabricate and discuss social transformation that challenge the standard model of an academic conference. The conference invites participants to create a common space for radical imagination and social justice that goes beyond a skill-share for radical organizers. Radical Imagination invites us to engage in a profound critique of what seems obvious (radical = that goes to the roots of something) and to explore alternative ways of living together – producing, loving, shaping spaces and time, inhabiting the land, working, using, struggling. It is an appeal to decolonize social relations and the dominant imaginaries that justify oppression and injustice. Radical Imagination is not just about dreaming alternative futures. It lures us into embodying alternatives in practices, actions, and thinking.

Kristian Williams, IAS member and Perspectives on Anarchist Theory editor and collective member, and author of Between the Bullet and the Lie: Essays on Orwell new from AK Press, will speak on “Pessimism in Politics: Orwell’s Dilemma” from 1:15pm to 3:30pm on Saturday, April 7th in MU 211.

Hillary Lazar, IAS writing grant recipient and author of Until All Are Free: Black Feminism, Anarchism, and Interlocking Oppression, published by the IAS’ journal, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, will speak on “‘That Deeply Human Sentiment:’ A Conversation about Love, Solidarity, and Revolutionary Praxis” in Milam Hall 301 on Friday, April 6th from 4:30pm to 6:30pm and “Until All Are Free: Interlocking Oppression Theories and Building Solidarity in Our Movements” on Sunday, April 8th, from 2:30pm to 4:30pm in MU Horizon.

About the IAS

The Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS), a nonprofit foundation established in 1996 to support the development of anarchism, is a grant-giving organization for radical writers and translators worldwide. To date, we have funded some ninety projects by authors from countries around the world, including Argentina, Lebanon, Canada, Chile, Ireland, Nigeria, Germany, South Africa, and the United States. Equally important, we publish the Anarchist Interventions book series in collaboration with AK Press and Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, the online journal Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, and the new Lexicon pamphlet series as well as organize the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference and offer the Mutual Aid Speakers List. The IAS is part of a larger movement to radically transform society as well. We are internally democratic and work in solidarity with people around the globe who share our values.